Activision re-joins Entertainment Software Association

The Entertainment Software Association has confirmed that Activision has re-joined the trade body.

The pair originally parted ways back in May 2008, with an Activision rep telling GameSpot at the time: "After careful consideration, Activision has decided not to renew its ESA membership for business reasons and will not be participating in any official E3 activities.

"We appreciate the work that the ESA has done over the years in promoting the interactive entertainment industry with state and federal governments and wish the ESA best of luck with the show."

Activision boss Bobby Kotick added in July of that year that: "I don't view [us leaving the ESA] as anything but time off. With the combined companies [Vivendi/Activision], the dues went up enough that I said for it to make sense [to spend that money], we have to make a strategic plan. We don't have that because nobody owns it for us right now."

Now the ESA has announced Activision’s renewed membership alongside confirmation that Tencent has also joined the trade association. This brings ESA’s total membership to 37 companies.

“We are excited to join ESA,” Activision Blizzard’s Chris Walther stated. “ESA has a long track-record of supporting its members and the video game industry, and we look forward to sharing our unique perspective and experience with them.”

ESA CEO and president Michael Gallagher added: “These highly innovative companies offer compelling and influential video games and game content to millions of players across the globe.

“Activision Blizzard and Tencent have established worldwide reputations as producers of world-class interactive entertainment. We are eager to work with both companies as they continue to grow their global interactive and entertainment services.”

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